The Chaliphate - Muir - The Search For Mecca

'
In
Strange, p. 331.
Z
;
A.T). 705-15] SA^^ARI^A^'D 353
heavily 011 Samarkand. Muslim families brought from A.FI. 86 96.
Khorasfm in great numbers were settled there: fire-houses
and idol- temples were destroyed ; the natives were all
disarmed and no heathen dared remain in the town overnight.
Bokhara and Khwarizm were similarly colonised
;
and these three places became famous in the after history
of Islam.
During the next two or three )'ears, aided by large Koteiba's last
contingents of horse from the tribes he had subdued (the th^bordei°"
favourite policy in the East of using subject peoples to of China,
rivet their o\\ n chain ^), Koteiba pushed his conquests ^
forward, taking Khojanda, Shash, and other cities of
Ferghana, till he reached Kashghfir and the confines of
China. A curious tale is told of an interview with " the
King of China," — probably a border Mandarin,—who, to
release Koteiba from an oath that he would take possession
of the land, sent him a load of Chinese soil to trample on,
a bag of Chinese coin by way of tribute, and four royal
)-ouths on whom to imprint his seal. Koteiba had now
reached the limit of his conquests. While on this campaign
he received tidings of the Caliph's death : suddenly
the
scene is changed and his future, as we shall see, all overcast.
Like Koteiba in Central Asia, Mohammad ibn al-Kasim Campaign of
of the Thaklf tribe, cousin of Al-I.Iajjaj and governor of q,^ th'e'fndus
Makran, was the first great conqueror on the Indian border. 89-96 a.h.
With a well-appointed army of 6000 men, he advanced on
7°
-71.-' •
Sind and laid siege to its capital, Deibul.- A catapult
named t/ic Bride, worked by 500 men, laid waste the cit)',
and a stone shot from it overthrew the pinnacle of the
famous temple of Al-Budd [Buddha], from which flaunted
its great red flag. The omen struck terror into the enemy
the King fled, and Ibn al-Kasim, leaving a garrison in the
city, pursued him across the Mihran (Indus), where,
surrounded by his elephants, he was slain in a severe
engagement. His wife and maidens, rather than suffer
dishonour, set fire to their palace, and were consumed with
95 A.H., 20,coo native levies arc said to have followed Koteiba
from Bokhara Kish, Nasaf, and Khwarizm.
^
Sind is only old Persian for Hind. Deibul was at this lime the
Indian port best known to the Arabs at the principal mouth of the
Indus. It now lies far inland, 45 miles E.S.E. from Kurftchi.— Le